Albino
by Rukiabi
Summary: One day I boarded the bus and I saw him. A boy with snow-white skin, blue with white hair, and blood red eyes. He was beautiful. Tyka hints.


All of my friends at school call me Dragon Eyes because of my blue coloured eyes. A friend of mine once asked me, "How come you have blue eyes, Tyson?"

"I don't know." I shrugged, honestly. "A genetic mutation I guess."

"Nobody in your family has eyes like you?"

"Nope." I like to think I'm special.

But one day I saw him. As I was boarding the bus for school, I noticed a boy around my age sitting in one of the seats near the back of the bus. He was wearing all black that heavily contrasted against his snow-white skin. His dual-toned hair was dyed thin blue in front and thick white behind. But the most prominent feature was his blood-red eyes. I sat on the right side of the bus, one row down from his seat and I couldn't stop staring at him. I thought he must be special. I couldn't stop thinking about him.

As if in response to my curiosity, I began to see him regularly. Every Tuesday morning on my way to school, I would always see him on the bus, in the same seat. Not many students take the bus here; people all prefer to drive or to bike ride in the sun, so I wonder how many people have seen him? This bus is usually empty except for him and me. I yearned to know more about him, but I could never bring up the courage to talk to him.

One Tuesday morning, I got on the bus expecting to see him, but he wasn't there. And then afterwards, he no longer appeared on the bus again. I was so overcome with disappointment. Man, why didn't I go up to him and talk to him when I had the chance? When you board a bus, when you see people on the bus, you never expect to see any of them again. A bus isn't really the best place to make friends. It's a crowded, stinky room filled with weirdoes, annoying drunkards, sometimes hobos, and crying babies in strollers. But if there was someone special, someone interesting and noticeable, truly the right thing to do is to go up to them and talk with them, because maybe you will never see them again. I continued to turmoil with these thoughts day after day. I'll never see that guy ever again for the rest of my life.

And then these thoughts evolved to 'Am I really special?' I was always so proud of my bright blue eyes that caught everybody's attention and had them staring. I would say aloud 'I'm the only one in the whole school with blue eyes' and people would come to befriend me. But this world is huge; it goes beyond the classroom, far beyond my school. There may be several special people travelling all over the world; some on buses even! I'm just one person out of billions.

Another Tuesday arrived, however I had no need to ride the bus. My school has a bi-monthly ritual where neither students nor teachers go to school for a day. We call it Professional Development day. On this day I was invited by some friends to visit the village square. Across from the restaurant we ate at is a clinic. I'm not sure how or why I turned to look, but I saw through the Japanese blinds a black limousine parked in front of the clinic and a pale-skinned boy step out of the back. My heart skipped a beat. I literally jumped from my kneeling position on the floor, declared to all my friends and neighbouring customers I desperately needed the toilet, and bolted out the door. 'He's here, he's here!' My mind screaming.

The boy entered the clinic, conversed with the receptionist and then left the clinic within 2 minutes. I saw this all from behind the streetlamp I hid myself. He was heading towards the playground I concurred, and I stealthily tracked him. Occasionally he would stop walking and just stand there for several drawn out seconds. He would turn his head from side to side, and I guess if he saw nothing, he would continue walking again. This made me very nervous. Did he know I was following him? At last we arrived at the park and he decided to rest on a swing set. He held the chains loosely with his pale thin arms as he kicked gravel.

Beautiful, that's what I thought when I finally saw him up close and saw the details of his face rather than just the back of his head. Despite the pale blue cargo pants and the dark grey shirt, there was something beautiful underneath. This was it. I clenched my fists in determination. I could no longer hide in the back just staring. I wasn't going to continue to be the stranger. I gathered all of my guts and pumped them out of my chest. I took my first step out of the shadows and treaded carefully towards the mysterious boy of my dreams. When I stopped in front of him, he stopped kicking and flashed me his blood-red eyes. Correction, he flashed me a view of the most brilliantly ruby red, deep with furious, burning passion, and he demanded "why have you been following me?"

"I-I…" I stuttered. I don't know. I honestly am not sure, I think I'm crazy, but I saw you on the bus one day and since then could never forget you. I want to be your friend. How do I say that? My sensitive conscious reassured me, just say it. Be honest and say what you want from deep within your heart.

"I, um, want to be your friend."

The boy resumed kicking again and was now staring at his shoes. "You're strange…" he said. "You just saw me and decided you want to be friends with me…" he shook his head, "you don't even know me."

I took a seat in the other swing beside his and told him my name. He shyly peaked from beneath his tresses and told me is name was Kai. Like a fountain, all these words and thoughts burst out of me. I told him everything about me, like how I loved sushi and watched action movies. I told him I was terrified of horror movies and stayed away from them. I love green tea flavoured snacks, I'm learning kendo, I have a few good friends, Domo looks like a giant burnt cake… Through all this, he'd look up from the ground occasionally and stare at me with intrigue curiosity. He responded little and when he did it was a one sentence response to something I said. But sometimes his cheeks would flush a light pink, I think in embarrassment to something I said; I said a lot of embarrassing things. I told him everything but the colour of my eyes. And he never asked. I wondered why; I wondered if he even noticed. This struck a pin to my heart. I must have always been waiting for others to notice that part of me, to notice my specialty. Now I've noticed just how narrow-minded I've been.

An hour passed with us like this before he stood up and announced "I have to go". At first I thought maybe it was because the sun looked low in the sky but he turned to me and said that it was almost time for his appointment. Oh, that's right; he was at the doctors earlier. I told him how I had to go back to my friends. They must be worried with how long I was taking in the toilet. We said our goodbyes and parted. Soon after, I regretted not asking him for a phone number or an address. Damnit! How will I ever see him again? That night I dreamt of him again, but this time in detail. He said, "You're strange..." to me. I forgot the second thing he said to me after I woke up.

It's Tuesday and I climb aboard the bus. Kai's seat is empty. Well with a limousine at his service why should he have to take the bus? I decide to sit in the seat he always sat in, on the left side, third row from the back. A couple of stops later, Snow White steps on board. I'm shocked. He looks shocked, though somewhere beyond that expression, I can also see pleasant satisfaction. He comes to my seat, the whole time staring at his shoes, takes a seat beside me and mumbles a 'Hi'. I feel like my heart is racing.

"Hey Kai… how come you're taking the bus?" He looks confused. "I mean, how come not ride in your limousine? Your family's rich right?"

He looks past the bus windshield, in the direction we're heading.

"Because I want to. Because…you said you take this bus to school."

My heart flutters and I can't believe my ears.

I just have to know.

"Kai, why do you have red eyes?" Are you like me?

Kai looks at me this time; I mean really looks at me. He has such a solemn expression and I feel like he is staring into my soul. Red meets blue, Fire and water, deep passion against open curiosity.

"Tyson," his white lashes is all that shades the intensity of his eyes, "I am an Albino. My body lacks the necessary pigments cells and that's why I have deathly pale skin and blood-shot eyes. I am the ultimate genetic mutation. You, with your beautiful blue eyes, have so many great friends. Even so, would you still be friends with a freak like me?"

I'm completely stunned. The bus starts to slow and Kai gets up.

"I have to go" he says. No, no wait!

"Kai!" I grab his wrist before he can step off the bus. I think I missed my stop a long time ago. And I don't care.

"Of course. Of course I'd be friends with you!" The bus driver got angry and began shouting so we stepped off the bus together.

"You're not a freak Kai, you are, you are…" There's something I want to say but I don't know how to say it; I don't even know what it is, but I feel so strongly right now. Kai has a very surprised expression. In those shining, crimson pools I see a mixture of happiness, sadness, surprise, uncertainty, and fear. He looks like he may cry, however he did an about turn and began stomping towards the village. I think from the mosaic of emotions he was feeling, he decided to settle on annoyance. I tail after him.

"Kai?"

"You're going to be late for school" he huffs.

"Yeah, I know. I don't care." A goofy smile forms on my lips.

Kai shyly glances my smile from beneath his delicate lashes before quickly redirecting his sight.

"Do what you want" he says. But I can see that faint tinge of pink highlight his cheeks. Nothing could have made me happier.

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a/n: I wonder what it was that Tyson wanted to say to Kai… oh wait. I'm the author so I know. Harharharharhar! First experimental fiction in a VERY long time. Yay :P


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